This was a remarkable experiment to be a part of. In the ‘Flight of the Bar-tailed Godwit’ project, the participants never met ‘in person’; instead, they connected within a virtual writers’ room—an online space facilitated by poet and playwright Emilie Collyer. Where would this lead us? That was the big question for our team.
The writers certainly brought their A-game: Tamara Feddema, Sylke Kingma, Myrte Marije Veenbaas, and Elmar Kuiper participated from Leeuwarden-Fryslân, while Ruby Mary Gill, Mohammad Taha, Sam Morley, and Jacqui Hodder joined from Melbourne-Victoria.
At the heart of this writers’ room was the migration of the bar-tailed godwit—known as ‘reade skries’ or ‘heawylp’ in Frisian and rosse grutto in Dutch—which travels annually between its wintering grounds in the Southern Hemisphere and the Arctic, where it breeds and raises its young. This is precisely why our colleague David Ryding, from CoL Melbourne, saw this long-distance migratory bird as a symbol of connection and perseverance, and conceived this project around it.
Through this approach—and by imbuing the theme with a profound philosophical resonance, especially relevant in these turbulent times in our global history—a unique series of poems has emerged, spanning two continents. The distance between Melbourne and Leeuwarden has been effortlessly bridged by literature. May it serve as an inspiration to many.
Ernst Bruinsma
October 2026
Would you like to read this publication in another language? Read the poems in English and Frisian
